June FOTM - The Pink Thing

[Stephen Bradbury]

June’s fly of the month is the Pink Thing. Tied and introduced into the Australian fly fishing scene by Darwin fly fisherman Graham White (originally tied to replicate a rubber tailed jig known as a vibrotail) it was based on a combination of two very successful flies, Dan Blantons ‘Whistler Fly’ and Lefty Kreh’s ‘Deceiver’. Read the full evolution of this wonderful fly in Peter Morse’s book ‘A Few Great Flies & how to fish them’. Since then it has become possibly one of the most popular flies in Australia for Barramundi, but it’s also a great fly for many other species and fly fishing situations. Depending on the weight of the finished fly (beadchain eyes, brass eyes, added lead wire etc) this fly can be very effective from shallow flats and snag bashing through to deep water reefs in clear or dirty water. It can be used to catch a variety of species including Barramundi, Threadfin salmon, Mangrove jack, Fingermark bream, Cod, all Trevally species, Queenfish, Cobia, most Mackerel species, Longtail tuna, Coral Trout, Australian Salmon (Kahawai), etc etc. It is essentially a baitfish fly with a saddle hackle tail for plenty of movement, barred grizzly hackles for fright stripes, some flash, bucktail around the tail to prevent fowling, some wide sparkle chenille (estaz) with a collar of palmered schlappen hackle to give more of a profile. A large weighted 4/0 pink thing (XL brass eyes or a ball sinker in the loop knot) is my personal go to fly for deep water reefs or shoals like those found in Exmouth gulf and can also be deadly fished in a burley trail and deserves a place in everyone’s fly box for Exmouth.
Recipe: in order of tying.
Hook – size 2/0# - 4/0# Gamakatsu SL12S.
Thread – Bright pink flat waxed 210 denier.
Eyes – Beadchain (medium or large) for shallow water, Brass dumbbells (large or extra large) for deeper water.
Tail – A small clump of white bucktail tied in first (or tapered game change fibre) with 4-6 white saddle hackles (2-3 tied each side of the hook shank) approx 2.5 x the hook length over the bucktail, plus 1 x pair of grizzly hackles over that for fright stripes.
Flash – 2 to 4 strands each side of the tail of flashabou pearl or silver sparkle flash or pearl lateral scale.
You can add some lead wire around the hook shank for weight if desired at this stage.
Over wing – 2 x bunches of white bucktail (or tapered game change fibre) tied in over the feather tail, one on top the other underneath and spread around the hook shank.
Under collar – A few wraps of estaz or large sparkle chenille (to help bulk out the collar).
Collar/head – 2 x pink schlappen hackles wound around the hook shank (original) or some modern versions use marabou tied in, crosscut rabbit strip or EP brush wound around the shank.
Tie in a monofilament or wire weed guard to fish if required.
Protect/seal the tie in point of the eyes and all exposed thread finish with UV resin (flow), head set or vinyl finish for fly longevity.
Tie fly onto 30-40lb fluorocarbon bite tippet with a lefty’s loop knot to allow for maximum movement. Retrieve using method suited to situation or target species e.g. small intermittent strips for Barra, Threadies, Jacks etc or large, long single strips for Trevally, Mackerel, Tuna, Salmon etc.

[Stephen Bradbury]

Some more pics.